Labels Project Management Guidelines

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建立時間： 2026-04-16 來源： https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/project-management-guidelines/labels/

Summary

GitLab Marketing team’s label strategy, covering hierarchy (project vs. group labels), scoped labels for mutually exclusive states, naming conventions, and lifecycle management (deprecate before delete). Core principle: create labels at the lowest possible level to minimize clutter.

GitLab 標籤系統設計原則：盡量在最低層級創建、使用 Scoped Labels 實現互斥狀態、標籤名稱限制 25 字元以避免 UI 截斷、刪除前需先廢棄一個月。

Key Points

• Project labels: scoped to one project only. Group labels: cascade to all subgroups and projects — use sparingly
• Scoped Labels (e.g., status::active, status::blocked) are mutually exclusive: applying one removes the previous label in the set automatically
• Label names should be under 25 characters to avoid UI truncation
• Each label’s Description field should specify: when to apply, purpose/goal, and DRI
• Group like labels with a common prefix (e.g., Sales_Region_West, Sales_Region_East) for UI grouping
• Deprecation process: append DEPRECATE_ prefix → socialize → wait one calendar month → delete. Never delete directly (breaks historical associations)
• Use Triage Bot to automate label hygiene at scale

Insights

• The “deprecate before delete” rule exists because deleting a label removes all historical associations on past issues — a destructive side effect that’s easy to miss. This is a sharp edge in GitLab’s data model.
• Scoped labels are the recommended mechanism for workflow state machines (status, priority tiers) — they enforce single-value semantics without application-level validation.

Connections

• Issue and Kanban boards project management guidelines — boards are driven primarily by label lists
• Labels — the concrete label implementation for Customer Support Operations
• Issue Triage Onboarding — triagers must apply these label conventions

Raw Excerpt

“Scoped Labels are used to assign status, support workflows, or otherwise segment items into ‘either / or’ situations. When one Scoped Label is applied, it automatically replaces any previous Label in that set.”